A Gallery

The A Gallery was a contemporary art gallery in Wimbledon, London run by Fraser Kee Scott.

The A Gallery was founded by Fraser Kee Scott in 1997. The gallery's first exhibit was recent Chelsea graduate Alison Jackson's Crucifix, priced at £1,500 and five years later valued at ten times that amount, after she had won a Bafta and written a best-selling book.

In 2004, the gallery exhibited in the window a life-sized nude sculpture, This Is Me (Who Am I), by Marie White (aged 24), a graduate of Wimbledon College of Art. The work, made from hair, wax and resin, was shown at her degree show without a problem. A lady entered the gallery and expressed interest in the work. Then some local schoolboys entered and made out they were molesting the sculpture, until Scott shouted at them and they left. Some passers-by made complaints to police that the sculpture was "disgusting", one stopping a police car to do so. Two policeman went to the gallery, which was advised the work was offensive under the Indecent Displays Act 1991. Chief Inspector Neil Patterson, who visited the gallery, said the work was very lifelike, "very explicit and very graphic."

For 24 hours the sculpture was moved to the side of the gallery, out of public view, then returned to the window with two frosted glass panels in place. Scott raised the sculpture's price from £5,000 to £7,000, which he said was nearer its real value, as it had taken eight months and cost £3,000 to make, mainly for 250 hours of the model's time. White said the work was not intended to cause offence, and that, as it was not posed in a "lewd, crude way", she was surprised at "the reaction of males that they can't view a nude sculpture and not imprint the sexual aspect onto her." Scott said he knew that "eye-catching" sculptures in the gallery window, including a large screaming lady, would "get attention, but I didn't know it would get this," that there were nude sculptures outside the Houses of Parliament, including male figures, and he did not understand why there was so much fuss. The sculpture was later exhibited as part of the town's Feva festival in The Boathouse at Waterside, Knaresborough, White's home town.

In October 2005, Scott, described as "gallery owner—and Stuckist", said in The Daily Telegraph that Tate gallery chairman, Paul Myners, was hypocritical for refusing to divulge the price paid by the Tate for its purchase of The Upper Room, paintings by its trustee, Chris Ofili, who had asked other artists to donate work to the gallery. Scott said that Stuckist artists would be painting pictures called "The Hypocrisy of Myners" and the best one would be offered to the Tate.

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